Joshi struck the right chord with Jaipur

JAIPUR: The demise of Pt Bhimsen Joshi made every music lover nostalgic especially president of Shruti Mandal, Prakash Surana who brought Joshi to Jaipur for the first time in 1965. He recalled many interesting memoirs relating to the stalwart classical singer's lifestyle and simplicity. Surana said, "We managed to bring Hari Prasad Chaurasia, Ameenudhin Khan Dagar, Girija Devi ,VG Jog and others, including Pt Joshi at one stage. Besides, contemporary vocalists, tabla players and other artists were also invited which added variety to the programme. The programme started at 7.30 pm and continued till 6.30 am. When Joshi started his programme, it was already 4.30 am. But he enthralled audience with various shades of morning ragas and it was one of the best programmes Jaipur ever had," he added. However, Surana regretted that Joshi could not visit Jaipur despite his willingness. "We had planned to felicitate Joshi with Rajmal Surana Smriti Sanman on the 25th anniversary of Shruti Mandal on January 4, 2001. However, he could not attend the function due to ill health," he added. On Joshi's simplicity, Surana said, "We had invited him to perform at Jaipur in 1965, a year after Shruti Mandal was established. He never negotiated with the amount to be paid to him. He was so attached with some people in Jaipur that he had called to know their wellbeing during floods (1982) and communal riots (1992). He always insisted that if he had to perform in Jaipur, he would stay with us along with his co-musicians. He performed over 20 times in Jaipur but never stayed in a hotel," Surana said with tears in his eyes.

About Joshi's food habit, Surana said dahi chawal' was his favourite. He used to have his dinner only after his performance. Many a times he had skipped it, Surana said. On his memorable performance, Arun Kumar, former chief secretary, Rajasthan, said, "Nothing could stop him once he got started. Once during his performance there was a power failure and everything from lights to microphone went off. Still Pandit ji continued and a gathering of over 200 people maintained a pin drop silence."